[darbolina]

He was very good for a while but we should've cashed when we had the chance. He was a shadow the player he was in his first season and if you look at his career it's been patchy with promise but then significant periods where he's made mistakes or lost his place/ form.

We'll miss the Evans of a couple of years ago but his attitude this year absolutely stank after Barcelona. Therefore in summary, a good time to split. It's just a shame our board were so reckless as to agree to his paltry release fee. Oh well, it's still 3.5m

[don1thedon]

I'm sad to say that I'm glad we are now rid of him.
Rated him exteremely highly but things seemed to start going awry when Fletcher moved to Stoke.

[paulosull]

Agreed, his legacy should be that of the best centre back I have ever seen in an Albion shirt (I go back to the late 80's so can only comment back that far) but instead the previous season has been largely forgotten and his legacy as an Albion player will be forever tainted by last season.

wouldn't come close to Wile and Robertson nor indeed Martin Bennett. Three of the best centre halves I've had the pleasure to watch down the Hawthorns.

[Fritzl Palace]

wouldn't come close to Wile and Robertson nor indeed Martin Bennett. Three of the best centre halves I've had the pleasure to watch down the Hawthorns.

Sadly I didn't have such pleasure, I grew up watching Burgess, Mardon, Raven and Strodder, legends in their own right but sadly not quite the same level of quality.

Matt Carbon before he shaved his hair off, however...

[Hull Baggie]

But yesterday you wrote "I said at the time we should have sold Evans for £12M to Arsenal, his head was elsewhere and his form had been in decline for months."

Bit of a contradiction there

oh okay then, I thought it was when Arsenal had made the bid but was in fact before the bid, the point remains that I said we should sell him in the January window; but hey we have finally sold him and that's what's important.

[VANDERLEI]

I can't blame him for wanting to play in the Prem but he has been a massive disappointment this season. I wish him well but it's criminal of the club to put us in the position of letting him go for £3 million. I didn't want to lose Evans, but if I had of known that he had that release clause then I would have been all for selling him for £20m+. Now we lose arguably our most valuable player for peanuts. Disgraceful.

[baggies_24]

Claude Puel ‘Evans a winner & leader’ did Leicester sign a different  Jonny Evans or was it the guy that captained the team who finished bottom of the league, went on a club record run of games without winning & who got inebriated up and thieved a taxi whilst on club duty?

Shouldn’t have ever been allowed to leave for the amount he has but if Leicester are relying on him for his leadership they will be in exactly the same position we were this season.

[VANDERLEI]

Claude Puel ‘Evans a winner & leader’ did Leicester sign a different  Jonny Evans or was it the guy that captained the team who finished bottom of the league, went on a club record run of games without winning & who got inebriated up and thieved a taxi whilst on club duty?

Shouldn’t have ever been allowed to leave for the amount he has but if Leicester are relying on him for his leadership they will be in exactly the same position we were this season.

That's a fair comment but let's not underestimate the affect that the other behind the scenes activities have played in his and many other of our "best" players form this season. Let's also not forget he was majestic for 2 seasons.

[Scooby Doo]

All I know is we looked better off without Evans than we did with him and for that Big Dave has to be given the credit. Perhaps had he been here and not Pardew he would've gone in January.

Goodbye, not so much good riddance, but I'm not remotely bothered to be selling a sub. Just feel let down by the club that we missed out on an awful lot of money in a short space of time.

[SmethDan]

If he'd have just got his head down and played like he had done for the previous two seasons I'd be wishing him well, but with his poor form and the Barcelona incident I just can't.

His comments about Leicester fans getting behind the team seem like a dig at us.

Why are we taking the fee in 2 installments, surely Leicester can afford to pay £3.5M up front?

I'll admit to not having read any of the articles relating to this transfer being completed.

But from memory of past articles it's not really £3.5 million as his agent was after a £4 million admin' fee.

Bit more of a chunk there if so, even though I'd imagine the agent's fee would probably be staggered too.

On another note staggered fees (applied across several outgoings no doubt) may suit our own purposes regarding tax commitments.

[VANDERLEI]

All I know is we looked better off without Evans than we did with him and for that Big Dave has to be given the credit. Perhaps had he been here and not Pardew he would've gone in January.

Goodbye, not so much good riddance, but I'm not remotely bothered to be selling a sub. Just feel let down by the club that we missed out on an awful lot of money in a short space of time.

Your last sentence is pretty much how I feel however I think if we had bought in a capable manager instead of Pardjoke we could have seen him back to his best. The powers that be are responsible for what has happened to us this season. They got it wrong in the transfer window and also with the timing of sacking Pulis and above all the appointment of Pardew. I know most people hate him, but if the club had of appointed the likes of Allardyce or someone of similar ability, we would still be a Premier League team.

[letmereadposts]

Pleased he has gone, I was hoping this would occur early in the Summer. We need players who respect the club and committed to progressing.

I think it says a lot about his (overall) performance and attitude that having almost 100 premier league apps, the fans still view him so poorly.

The incident in Barcelona - as captain of our club - was appalling.

[jimmyj]

He's an excellent defender on his day. A proper leader on the pitch as well.
That said, I'm not sad to see the back of him. His behaviour and attitude has left a very sour taste. 
I'll look on the bright side and say that frees up around 70k a week for a couple of younger players to bolster our promotion challenge.
Also a level of schadenfreude at the fact that a move to a city/utd/arsenal/spurs team never materialised.

[AlbionFan]

oh okay then, I thought it was when Arsenal had made the bid but was in fact before the bid, the point remains that I said we should sell him in the January window; but hey we have finally sold him and that's what's important.

Oh what a graceful double down 

[gerry m]

Delighted to see him go but could have sold him last summer for £20m+.

[leeiswba]

Delighted to see him go but could have sold him last summer for £20m+.

We could have but there would have been absolute uproar if we did

[Baggies]

Can’t shake the rubbish feeling that we are on the wrong end of one of the premier league bargains of the summer. 3 or 3 1/2 million for a player of his quality in this crazy market is a real steal. I won’t comment on the decision to allow the release clause too much, as we did well to sign him in the first place, but I do wonder if a better negotiator would have realised the deal was hugely flawed.

I am glad to see the back of him though. Totally unprofessional these past 12 months, finished with a txt message on the final day of the season to say he couldn’t be bothered to go on the bench.

Great signing for Leicester, but let himself down badly here.

[VVVAlbion]

I'm not sad to see him go and if I'm honest I'm generally happy with the release clause.

I imagine the clause was instrumental in his initial signing for us and we did get some good service out of him to begin with. As many have alluded to he is clearly a talented footballer; if he had continued to show this and with better management the clause would have been irrelevant. Should we have sold him earlier when we had better offers? In hindsight yes (financially) but it would have been a clear signal that we had given up at Christmas cashing in on an asset because we were concerned his value would drop if relegated.

My one problem, and I think this says more about modern footballers, how genuine were his attempts to keep us up knowing that he was guaranteed a payday if we went down? For me, it is almost as bad as those players who, after relegation, bleed their clubs dry taking wages that they know the club can not afford.

Good luck to Leicester,  you may have a bargain, you may have a wrong un.

[The Black Pearl]

Never rated him that highly, glad to see him go.

[TheBrom]

Be glad to watch him continue his imploding next season, always thought he was a bit higher rated here than he actually was.

[Scooby Doo]

I think he'll excel at Leicester. He'll simply get back to the best of what we saw of him here in my opinion. This season was a blip for him for whatever reasons. He let himself here down towards the end and it was summed up by being a substitute during our best spell of the season. Personally won't forget him as being an important part of what was our best Premiership defence ever, but he sort of undid that with the last 6 months.

[Standaman]

No matter how good he was for the first two seasons he was appalling in his final season and that was the season that mattered. We were under the cosh almost from the start and our club captain bailed out. I hope Leicester aren't counting on him being up for it in a relegation battle because he isn't.

I am not sure that he will be a success at Leicester players can't switch on and off like light bulbs once they start to slide often they carry on sliding. A 3 year contract a £80k a week no pay increase and no interest from Arsenal nor Man City let's see how it goes, I hope badly. 

[ex coseley kid]

Just glad he's gone. He went from hero (ish) to zero. Lousy attitude that we don't need.

What worries me slightly is that we've had a number of these, Peter Odemwhinger, Saido, Anelka...

How much of it is a discontent with how our club is/ has been run? I do wonder about that sometimes.

[AlbionFan]

Just glad he's gone. He went from hero (ish) to zero. Lousy attitude that we don't need.

What worries me slightly is that we've had a number of these, Peter Odemwhinger, Saido, Anelka...

How much of it is a discontent with how our club is/ has been run? I do wonder about that sometimes.

I wouldn't suggest our club is perfect when it comes to how it treats players, but the names you mention are flawed characters in my view and not representative of the vast majority of decent characters we've had over the years.

Strange that those you mention aren't of yours and mine era, or is it?. We could never have imagined any of the '68 era team or '78 era team behaving in the manor that some do today. But in those days players were closer to the fans, drank in the same pubs, had a night out with their families in the same restaurants and didn't earn too much more than some fans.

But the millionaire lifestyle of the top leagues players has changed all of that, for the worse in my opinion. However, I understand it's not just a simple as that, because fame and wealth come with a different set of challenges for what are working class blokes, in the main, that are good at sport and may not be able to handle all that comes with that talent.

[boinging_along]

I'd also point out that those players mentioned haven't gone on to better things and have just exhibited the same symptoms so not exclusive to west Brom.